The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has described as offensive, bigoted and hate-filled a video made and circulated by the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, in which he accused an unnamed Tinubu Support Group of spreading a Whatsapp message calling on the Yoruba not to vote for him.
The purported message, according to Obi in the video, forewarned the Yoruba that a vote for Peter Obi would be a vote for a seaport in South-south and Southeast.
The transcript of the so-called message as relayed by Obi in the said video had read: “Yoruba shine your eyes o, if you vote for Peter Obi, it is automatically voting for seaports in South-south and Southeast. The Igbos will stop coming to Lagos State to invest, rather they will go to Delta and Rivers States, they may even stop building houses in Lagos. It will affect a lot of Yorubas. Yoruba ro nu o.”
But in a statement issued on Monday by the spokesman of the APC Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, no such group is in existence.
Keyamo accused Obi of concocting the message to claim victim of an ethnic agenda, adding that Obi is the ‘agent provocateur’ of an ethnic agenda.
“All groups supporting the APC Presidential Candidate and his running-mate have clear designations with well-known promoters. In addition, it is only messages released by the APC Presidential Campaign Council that are officially authorized and for which we take responsibility.
“We challenge Mr. Peter Obi to reveal the source and name(s) behind that nebulous Whatsapp message.
“We wish to state that it is obvious Mr. Peter Obi deliberately concocted that message and circulated that offensive video himself as a campaign strategy in order to come across as a victim of some kind of ethnic agenda, whereas in truth, he is the real agent provocateur of an ethnic agenda.
“As the takeoff date for campaigns draw closer, Mr. Peter Obi has suddenly realised that Nigerians are beginning to burst his bubbles as his messages are bereft of ideas, depth and clear-cut solutions to our challenges. His messages are only full of false data and highfalutin jargons in what is clearly a disingenuous ruse to distract a scrutiny of his empty records as a Governor of Anambra State and nothing else. Hence his easy recourse to playing ethnic card and fanning the ember of hate.”
“We find it utterly disgusting, demeaning and insulting to the sensitivities and sensibilities of Nigerians for a Presidential Candidate of the ilk of Peter Obi to make such a video parroting a spurious, unverified and sham message that has the potential of deepening our fault lines as a nation and further promoting ethnic tensions. This is completely unbecoming of a Presidential Candidate that hopes to unite this country. Again, we note that Mr. Obi’s latest stunt is consistent with what is now widely perceived as his adoption of hate as campaign strategy, having consistently failed to rein in his known and identifiable supporters, mostly domiciled on social media, threatening political opponents with violence and death,” the statement read in part.
